featuring guest authors; crafting tips and projects; recipes from food editor and sleuthing sidekick Cloris McWerther; and decorating, travel, fashion, health, beauty, and finance tips from the rest of the American Woman editors.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

COOKING WITH CLORIS--GUEST AUTHOR KIMBERLY KINCAID

Kimberly Kincaid is a
former RWA Golden Heart® finalist who lives by the mantra that food is love.
She writes sweet, sexy contemporary romance. Her Pine Mountain series will be
available starting in October 2013. Learn more about Kimberly and her books at
her website. -- AP

In my personal life and in my writing, I live by the mantra
the food is love. So it’s no great surprise that many of my character have
professions in the culinary field, and that they all end up touched by food in
some way. But you don’t have to be a chef or a foodie to play along.

In my digital novella, Love
On The Line, my hero Noah is a rough, gruff cop, a pure takeout food junkie…until
he is injured on the job and must rely on a personal chef to keep him from
starving. In the story, they make chicken and dumplings together, and it’s a
perfect learn-your-way recipe. It’s a warm, satisfying meal, and there’s room
for both creativity and a little error (it doesn’t have to be pretty to taste
good!) But the beauty of it is, as Noah and chef Violet cook, they’re not just
creating a way to feed their bodies, but coming up with a way to nourish
themselves (and eventually, each other.) And what starts out in the kitchen
ends up in the heart.

Food is love, indeed!

Violet Morgan’s
Chicken and Dumpling Stew

Serves 6.

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

½ teaspoon thyme

A pinch to ¼
teaspoon nutmeg, to taste

1 8-ounce package sliced baby Portabella mushrooms, wiped
clean

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 32-ounce container chicken stock

1 pound chicken breasts, trimmed and cut into bite-sized
chunks

2-3 cups mixed vegetables, such as sliced carrots, small
broccoli and/or cauliflower florets, and of course, for Noah, peas. Frozen works
just fine, but fresh is okay too

Add chicken and vegetables. As stew comes back to a boil,
combine baking mix, milk, parsley and 1 teaspoon thyme in a bowl. Drop in level
tablespoonfuls into the simmering stew and reduce heat to low. Cover the Dutch
oven and cook fifteen minutes longer. Add salt and pepper to taste. Serve with
nice crusty bread for dipping and a green salad (just don’t tell Noah there are
greens!)

Love on the Line

Violet Morgan puts the personal
in personal chef, catering to clients who want the full cooking experience
rather than a culinary drop-and-dash. But when her brother’s police detective
partner is injured in the line of duty and needs help during recovery, she
makes an exception. Violet lost her father to the job seven years ago, and
worries for her brother’s safety every day. The last thing she wants is to get
up-close with her brother’s career-cop partner…again.

For Noah Blackwell, being a detective isn’t just a
lifestyle, it’s a legacy. So when he’s forced to take mandatory leave and deal with the trauma amnesia keeping
him from identifying his shooter, it’s a literal case of adding insult to
injury— and now he’s got to deal with an unwanted culinary caregiver on top of
it. Never mind that he and Violet shared a steamy, secret kiss last New Year’s
Eve. She rejects everything related to the job, and Noah’s not about to be
distracted from recovering his memory and getting back to what he does best. No
matter how pretty Violet is.

Despite their differences, Violet and Noah share a
surprising bond in the kitchen that grows into something neither of them expect.
But as Noah heals and their feelings for each other extend from the kitchen to
the bedroom, Violet knows she must make an impossible choice. She may wear her
heart on her sleeve when it comes to food, but can she risk
it all to put love on the line?

Newsletter

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Read about Anastasia in the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery seriesby Lois Winston. Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in the series, received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist. Kirkus Reviews called it "North Jersey's more mature answer to Stephanie Plum." Assault With a Deadly Glue Gunwas also a Book of the Year Award nominee from ForeWord Reviews, a Daphne du Maurier Award finalist, and a Readers Choice Award nominee from the Salt Lake City Library System. Other books in the series include Death by Killer Mop Doll, Revenge of the Crafty Corpse, Decoupage Can Be Deadly, A Stitch to Die For, and Scrapbook of Murder, plus three mini-mysteries: Crewel Intentions,Mosaic Mayhem, and Patchwork Peril. Look for more of Anastasia's adventures coming in the future.

About Me

I'm the crafts editor at American Woman magazine; the single parent of two teenage boys and a Shakespeare quoting parrot; caretaker to a semi-invalid, communist mother-in-law from Hell and her demon dog; daughter to a multi-married descendant of the Czars (supposedly); reluctant cat-sitter to Mama's extremely corpulent white Persian cat; a born Jersey girl; and star of my own amateur sleuth mystery series.